In 2016, a new penal code was introduced. For the next eight years, no one was convicted under the laws prohibiting forced marriage. In the same period, more than a thousand forced marriage cases have come to the aid apparatus. Why is no one convicted? news Brennpunkt was allowed inside an investigation. Police Superintendent Jasmina Holten and section leader Astri Johanne Holm on their way to the action meeting. Photo: Svend Even Hærra / news An investigative team at the Stovner police station in Oslo is assembled. They have received a report from the child protection agency. Which has again been notified by the school two young people attend. The young people have told that they have to marry their cousin and cousin, which they do not want. Tomorrow’s action is now being planned. – The plan is for us to carry out six interviews at three different locations, and a search, says chief investigator Sofie. Parents and siblings must be questioned. The home must be searched. But the children have already been placed by the child welfare services for a period. Now they are back with their parents. Will they want to tell? The scope of forced marriage news Brennpunkt has with its series “Îre” put a spotlight on honour-related crime. Today, news told the Competence Team about a record number of cases. But how big is the problem of forced marriage? There are numbers that can give some indication. Norway has a competence team that will guide the police, child protection, schools and other public employees. They have had almost 1,300 cases in the last 8 years that have dealt with forced marriage. A case is a person. Diversity advisers work at selected secondary and upper secondary schools. In the last 8 years, they have met over 270 young people, who have told things that have made the counselor suspect or fear forced marriage. Some of the young people have also discussed their difficult situation anonymously on Ung.no: Girl, 13 years old.Dad has said that I will get married next year, and I met the boy last month. I don’t like him and don’t want to get married. Boy, 16 years old. I have to marry my cousin. Girl, 20 years old. I am a 20-year-old girl. My parents plan to marry me off abroad, I don’t want that. I don’t know what to do, I feel like I just want to die. Girl, 18 years old Now I’m Islamically married to my dad’s cousin, and he lives in Norway and the wedding will be in December. I have never liked the man I am married to, have never developed feelings for him. Girl, 17 years My mother has barely talked to me about me marrying my cousin who lives in my home country. I have clearly said no. My mother thus begins to talk about the family’s honour, and what kind of consequences it will have for her. Since 2016, around 180 adults have lived in Norwegian shelters, with the stated reason: Exposed to forced marriage. Norwegian police have investigated around 80 cases in the same period. 49 of them were not cleared up before they were dropped. There has been a trial. But there was no verdict either. Astri Johanne Holm heads the section for investigating violence in intimate relationships at the East Unit in Oslo. Photo: Svend Even Hærra / news Astri Johanne Holm is section leader at Stovner police station. She believes public agencies can struggle to find each other. One possible explanation, according to her, is that the individual does not understand what he is potentially facing, and that the duty to prevent is not well enough known. – It is the same thing that happens repeatedly. The police are notified too late, says Holm. Will the investigation at Stovner lead to a trial? Reconstruction image of the interrogation. Photo: Ole Jørgen F. Kolstadbråten / news At Stovner police station, the questioning of the two siblings is underway. Police Superintendent Jasmina Holten experiences what she has experienced so many times before. The young people withdraw all accusations against their parents about forced marriage. They say everything is fine now. It was all a misunderstanding. – It wasn’t even coercion, the boy says in questioning. Without concrete evidence or detailed explanations from the young people, the police have no case. – Our experience from the cases we have investigated is that the majority withdraw their explanations for various reasons, says Holten. She is a specialist in the investigation of honor crimes. Holten says there is great ambivalence and cross-pressure which means that the victims do not seek help in time. And that they do not want to report or punish the family. Jasmina Holten and police investigator Thea Glomsaker discuss what has emerged in the interrogations. Photo: Stephan Reis / news Throughout the interview, the young people still tell about incidents that make police officer Holten hope she can solve the case. One young person tells about the engagement party. About the ceremony that has been carried out. The other young person tells about the conversation when she heard that she had been given away. Pekeleken Kripos has for several years had employees who have specialized in crimes of honor. Have they done enough to help the police in these cases? Police prosecutor Terje Bjøranger in Kripos replies that they are an aid agency, which helps when they get questions about it from the police districts. With what they are asked about. Furthermore, it is a question of resources, believes Bjøranger. Those responsible for follow-up and development of the police districts are the Norwegian Police Directorate. But with them it is pointed further. – These questions you ask here must be addressed to the attorney general, answers press contact Henrik Nielsen. So what does the Attorney General say to zero verdicts? – The Attorney General cannot say anything for certain about the cause. There may be a lack of knowledge about the topic, replies State Attorney Tone Aase at the Attorney General’s Office. – So how are we going to uncover more cases? – There are others than the Attorney General who are closer to answering that, Aase replies. And suggests the Norwegian Police Directorate. So then we asked them one more time. This time they answered. The Norwegian Police Directorate points out that in 2021 the Criminal Code was changed to better punish religiously contracted forced marriages. They say that theme has been lifted in the last decade. Among other things, it has been part of the annual professional refresher for investigators and prosecutors. – There are still challenges with these matters. With evidence, and that the victims risk breaking with an extended family, says section chief John-Magnus Løkenflaen in the Police Directorate How news Brennpunkt has done the investigation news has obtained statistics from the Attorney General’s Office on the number of convicts under the new and old penal code. The old penal code applies to events up to 2015. People may have been sentenced for coercion (paragraph 222, first paragraph), where the basis for the sentence was forced marriage, without it appearing in the Attorney General’s statistics. Another possible source of error is if the prosecution has entered cases into the system incorrectly. news has also reviewed the Legal Data, for possible judgments that did not appear in the Attorney General’s statistics. Conclusion Jasmina Holten is a specialist in the investigation of crimes of honor. Photo: Svend Even Hærra / news At Stovner police station, the prosecution officer, investigators and managers gathered to decide what to do in the case where two young people reported possible forced marriage. The children chose to withdraw the accusations against their parents. In questioning, the parents have said that they do not want to forcefully marry off their children. – But wasn’t it the case that they have explained that they realized afterwards that they were at their own engagement party, asks Astri Johanne Holm. – Yes, but what they said at the beginning cannot stand alone without other evidence, replies prosecutor Margrethe Hee Dahlen Røijen. The case was dropped on the state of the evidence. Like 45 other investigations into possible forced marriages in the last eight years. Watch the first episode of news Brennpunkt’s documentary series Honor here: Police chief Jasmina desperately tries to save two young Norwegians from being forced into marriage. At the same time, “Nora” is on the run from her parents. Hello! We at news Brennpunkt are working on a larger project on honor crimes. There will be more cases in the coming weeks. Do you know something? Do you have specific tips for things we should look into? Feel free to get in touch. Send me an email or contact me encrypted on the Signal app on +47 99 45 08 03.
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No one convicted of forced marriage in the last 8 years – news Dokumentar
